Alumni Hall Expansion

On April 22, Alumni Hall unveiled its new 1,600-square-foot addition, with the help of Ashley Manning (Com ’97). Manning talked about her love for all things UVA and the importance of being a member of a team. “The UVA Alumni Association is one of the greatest teams I’ve been a part of in my life. I’m thrilled that this pavilion will help current and future students, and ensure the greatness of our wonderful University. This pavilion is a win,” said Manning, a member of the Alumni Association’s Board of Managers.  The addition, called Manning Pavilion, was designed by Jim Boyd (Arch ’75), Carmine Cafiero (Arch ’10) and Aaron Compton of Grimm and Parker, and will be used primarily as a meeting place for students, but will also support internal and external events, such as weddings.

9th Wonder Wows

Dan Addison

Grammy Award-winning producer 9th Wonder, who has worked with Jay-Z, Drake and Kendrick Lamar, visited Grounds in late March for the weeklong Spring 2017 Artist Residency, courtesy of the UVA Music Arts Board and the McIntire Department of Music. The residency featured student workshops and showcases and was capped off by a performance by 9th Wonder himself. “I think for a lot of people, hip-hop is really just rap and a beat, and it ends there,” says Walter Floyd (Col ’17), the undergraduate co-chair of the Arts Board. “It was so exciting to really see how breakdancing and DJing and graffiti also tie into that.”

Student Center Opens

Andrew Shurtleff

UVA opened its new $4.9 million student center on the Corner in March. The space at 1515 University Ave., which housed the Cavalier Diner, Jamison’s College Store, Lloyd’s Rexall Drugstore and the Student Bookstore over the years, offers a little bit of everything for students. The main floor features a stage that can be reserved for performances and has a gourmet dessert café; the second floor includes rooms for meetings, studying and meditation; and the basement holds a lounge area that includes a gaming arcade.

New VP for Research

Courtesy Melur Ramasubramanian

Ever since his daughter, Varna Sharma (Engr ’15), attended the University of Virginia, Melur K. Ramasubramanian says he wondered what it might be like to work there—a question that will be answered with his appointment as UVA’s vice president for research. “It doesn’t feel like I’m moving to a new place,” says Ramasubramanian. “It’s a feeling of coming home type of thing.”

Ramasubramanian, who goes by “Ram,” is currently the program director for the Engineering Research Centers program at the National Science Foundation and is mechanical engineering department chair at Clemson University. One of his tasks at UVA will be establishing institutes similar in nature to the recently created Data Science Institute and
Brain Institute. He starts at UVA on Aug. 8 and will report to President Teresa Sullivan.

Curry School Climbs in Rankings

Over the past decade, Virginia’s Curry School of Education has made a huge leap in the U.S. News & World Report’s graduate school rankings, which are based on a weighted average of 10 measures, including GRE scores, acceptance rate, peer assessment, student-faculty ratio and research expenditure.

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In 2017, among education schools, Curry tied with the University of California, Berkeley, and Ohio State University, moving up three spots from the previous year and 13 places from 2007; Curry was 10th among public schools.

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Five of Curry’s programs ranked in the Top 10.

#4 Special Education
#6 Elementary Education
#9 Secondary Education
#10 Administration and supervision
#10 Education policy